Marathi movie 'Zenda' leaves MNS activists miffed

January 07, 2010 03:11 IST

Zenda, an upcoming Marathi movie based on the feud between Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray has been termed as biased by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists for portraying their leader in "bad light".

"It is a very biased movie and has depicted Raj Thackeray in bad light," president of the cine workers' association of the MNS Ameya Khopkar said.

The movie, which is set for release on Friday, was made by musician Avdhoot Gupte, who is a close associate of Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

Avdhoot had kept a special screening show of the movie for Thackeray and got approval from him, last week.

However, MNS activists, who watched the film on Wednesday conveyed their anger to the filmmaker.

"We condemned the movie and also conveyed our feelings to filmmaker Avdhoot Gupte. We are shocked the way they have filmed a character resembling our leader," Khopkar said.

Asked if the party would launch protest against the movie, Khopkar replied in the negative.

"We do not want to give any importance to the movie. Raj saheb has told us that people do not make their opinions by watching such movies," he said.

Zenda, based on dynastic politics in the Shiv Sena and pictured on characters similar to Uddhav and Raj, is about a party called Jan Sena, founded by the Sarpotdars and the split between cousins Prashant (modelled on Uddhav) and Rajesh (character resembling Raj).

In the film, Rajesh quits the Jan Sena to form his Maharashtra Samrajya Sena.

A character with similarities to Raj had been earlier portrayed in Ram Gopal Verma's Sarkar Raj too.

Zenda, which releases three years after Raj floated the MNS, is the first film to portray his rivalry with his cousin.